Wreckage, remains from Air Algérie flight AH5017 found in Mali – official

An Air Algerie flight carrying 110 passengers and six crew members has reportedly crashed in Mali after having disappeared from radar early on Thursday morning between Burkina Faso and Algeria.

Malian state TV reports that the wreckage of the Air Algérie
flight was found close to the Malian town of Gossi. According to
AP, this information has been confirmed by a Burkina Faso
official.

"We have found the Algerian plane. The wreck has been
located...50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Burkina Faso
border" in the Malian region of Gossi, General Gilbert
Diendiere of the Burkina Faso army said, as quoted by AFP.

"Sadly, the team saw no one on site. It saw no
survivors," said Diendiere, a close aide to Burkina Faso
President Blaise Compaore, and the head of the crisis committee
set up to coordinate the search operation.

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is expected to visit the
crash scene on Friday, according to Reuters.

Early morning on Friday, France said it had sent troops to secure
the site of the wreckage of the Air Algérie flight, Reuters
reported.

"A French military unit has been sent to secure the site and
gather the first elements of information," a statement from
French President Francois Hollande's office said.

A French Ministry of Defense had told Fox News earlier that the
two French fighter jets located the wreckage, while the airline
placed the likely location of the crash further south west.

“The plane would have crashed in the region of Tilemsi, 70km
from Gao,” Air Algerie tweeted.

However, moments beforehand, French Foreign Minister Laurent
Fabius had announced at a press conference that the plane was
still missing.

A spokeswoman for Spanish private airline company, Swiftair,
confirmed that it had lost contact with one of its
planes operated by Air Algerie on Thursday. The plane was an Air
Algerie MD-83, flight AH5017.

"Air navigation services have lost contact with an Air
Algerie plane Thursday flying from Ouagadougou to Algiers, 50
minutes after take-off,"the airline said.

Swiftair said that there had been “no contact” with the
missing aircraft since.

French Transport Minister, Frederic Cuvillier, told reporters
that it was “likely many” French passengers were on
board the flight.

"There are 110 passengers and 6 crew traveling on the plane,
of which four are pilots and two cabin crew," the Swiftair
statement confirmed. The crew members were Spanish.

A representative for the airline told a news conference that
according to passenger lists, some 50 French nationals were
traveling on the route. Additionally, there were 24 Burkinabe,
eight Lebanese, four Algerians, two from Luxembourg, one Belgian,
one Swiss, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian, one Ukrainian and one
Romanian.

Burkina Faso’s transport minister confirmed that the Air Algerie
flight had asked to change course at 1:38 am GMT because of a
storm.

Meanwhile, an Algerian aviation source, who wished to remain
anonymous, told AFP that “the plane was not far from the
Algerian frontier when the crew was asked to make a detour
because of poor visibility and to prevent the risk of collision
with another aircraft on the Algiers-Bamako route.”

“We are totally mobilized, both in Paris, and at crisis
centers in Algiers and Ouagadougou, where our embassies are in
constant contact with local authorities and the airline,”
the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on
their website.

Two French fighter jets have been dispatched to help locate the
flight, a French army spokesperson told Reuters.

"Two Mirage 2000 jets based in Africa were dispatched to try
and locate the Air Algerie plane that disappeared on
Thursday." Gilles Jaron said. "They will search an area
from its last known destination along its probable route,"
he added.

The Algerian Ministry of Defense has not ruled out the
possibility of a terrorist attack, reported Al Arabiya. However,
French officials told AP that it is unlikely that fighters in
Mali had the kind of weaponry capable of shooting down a plane.

French President Francois Hollande has postponed a trip to the
island of La Reunion, east of Madagascar, by two hours because of
the plane crash.

The missing AH5017 was found to be an old Real Madrid plane, 'La
Saeta', which was used by the club between 2007 and 2009.

Fidel Castro’s nice, Mariela Castro, a prominent gay rights
activist, was initially thought to be on board the flight after
the Facebook page of Burkina Faso’s main airport - Ouagadougou -
stated: “Among the passengers on flight AH5017 will have been
two European officials of French nationality stationed in
Ouagadougou and Mariela Castro, niece of Fidel Castro, former
Cuban head of state.”

However, Mariela Castro later told Venezuelan channel TeleSUR by
telephone that she was 'alive' denying all reports that
she had been a passenger. "I'm alive and kicking, happy and
healthy," she said. The airport's Facebook page later
removed the statement.

Initial reports of the crash were confirmed by Algerian aviation
authorities. "I can confirm that it has crashed," an
anonymous official later told Reuters. Early reports from the
CCTV network and Algerian TV suggested that it went down in Niger
rather than Mali.